God’s Love for Lost Bad People and Lost Good People

Luke 15: 1-32; Key Verse: 32

"It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "

Last Sunday, we studied the Parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14.  This Parable showed us the heart of God towards all people, which is God’s utmost desire to invite as many people as possible to His great heavenly banquet in the kingdom of God by using any and all available means, sparing no cost.  As Len shared, this invitation to God’s kingdom is more valuable than being invited to dinner by Obama or Donald Trump or being invited to Michael Jackson’s funeral. This invitation is of utmost importance and value, because it is our only ticket to heaven, and our only way out of going to hell.  Yet many people rejected the invitation because they considered other things more important, such as waiting for their paycheck, going on a special date, or watching a new movie.  We are also deaf to God’s priceless invitation when we secretly worship idols in our hearts, especially our precious family members.  Thus we must always remember how great and loving is God’s invitation to us.  It is a priceless invitation that no one should miss, because the consequence of rejecting God’s invitation is tragic beyond words to describe.

In today’s passage, Jesus tells three parables of lost things: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.  The word “lost” may be the best description of all human beings, for we lost our greatest treasure of eternal life because of our sins, and are on a highway to hell without even realizing it. Thus, the greatest tragedy of every single human being in the entire world is his lost condition. To our surprise, Jesus focuses on the fact that many “good” moral religious people are blind to their own lost condition, more so than “bad” immoral irreligious people.  As we study today’s passage, let’s think about how much God loves both the lost bad immoral people and even the lost good moral people.

First, We are lost, but God is searching to bring us home

Let’s read verses 1-2 together, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.  And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’”  This verse sets the context for Jesus’ three parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.  The Pharisees, who were the “good” religious leaders in Israel, grumbled that Jesus welcomed sinners.  They did not understand that finding lost sinners and restoring them was Jesus’ main purpose in coming into the world.  They also did not understand that all people, including themselves, are lost sinners who need Jesus’ grace for salvation.  Through three parables, Jesus emphasized different aspects about God’s utmost concern for the lost, that is, all people.

Verses 3-7 tell the parable of the lost sheep.  A man who had a hundred sheep lost one, so he left the other ninety-nine and went out to search for the lost sheep until he found it.  When he got it back home, he called his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him.  One prominent characteristic of sheep is that they always get lost.  Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  My cat, Mruczek, always tries to run away from home whenever someone opens the door, but once he gets outside he gets lost, and sometimes it takes a month to find him.  The Pharisees failed to realize that they themselves were lost sinners.  Furthermore, they failed to see immoral people as lost children of God who needed to be brought home.  They thought of them as junk to be thrown into hell with no second chances.  All people are made in God’s image.  So, God is not eager to throw us away like trash, even though we are stained by sin.  God wants to restore us in his image, which we were designed for, so that we can bring glory to God.  Sometimes we have a human view of good and evil, in which the good are honored and the bad are killed.  However, even the worst human being is created in God’s image and is sought by God to be restored.  This parable highlights God’s concern for each person individually, because God left ninety-nine sheep to rescue the one lost sheep.  He did not just settle for ninety-nine percent, which is an excellent average.  So, God not only cares for large church groups and families, but each individual person.

Next Jesus tells the parable of the lost coin.  Let’s read verses 8-10 together: "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."  In this parable, a woman with ten silver coins lights a lamp and sweeps the house and seeks diligently until she finds her lost coin.  Then she calls her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her.  In ancient Jewish culture, it was customary when a girl married for her to wear a headband of ten silver coins which she received as her dowry. So, losing one coin was comparable to losing her diamond engagement ring. To lose it was a disaster. The prominent characteristic in this parable is the precious value of the lost coin.  It was not just silver.  It was not just a collectible prize or sentimental trinket.  It was a symbol of her very heart.  We must know that God values us more than anything in the world.  We must also know that God values all lost sinners as well. Genesis chapters 1-3 summarize the Christian worldview.  First, God created men and women in his precious image.  Second, people sinned and were lost from fellowship with God and brought God’s wrath and judgment upon themselves.  Third, God sent a savior to rescue the lost.  Ultimately, God will consummate world history with an everlasting celebration. Without understanding God’s view of the world, the Pharisees did not realize that they were lost sinners.  They also didn’t see how precious lost sinners are to God.  If we don’t understand God’s view of the world, we’ll never realize how desperately lost and wicked we are, and how much we need God’s mercy and restoration daily.  Also without God’s worldview, we also tend to criticize people who seem worse than us and ignore their great value in God’s sight.  Let’s thank God that he values us as a priceless treasure in spite of our sins, and let’s treat other people as God’s lost treasure as well.

Second, God is so merciful to us in spite of all our sins

In Luke chapter 12, Jesus introduced God as the Heavenly Father through the Lord’s prayer.  Now he further describes God’s fatherly love through the parable of the lost son.  The younger son selfishly took his share of the father’s inheritance and squandered it on wild living.  But he reached the end of his pride because his money was gone.  The younger son had nothing to offer except his humble apology, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” (Luke 15:21)  Feeling unworthy, he asked that the father would accept him as a hired servant.  But the father welcomed him back with open arms.  Let’s read verses 22-24 together, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”  The son must have been amazed by the father’s mercy.  He had abandoned his father, broken his very heart, but his father did not disown him.  Jesus’ teaching to call God “Abba, Father” was revolutionary.  The Old Testament Jews were not familiar with such an intimate relationship to God because our sins distance us from God.  But Jesus repeats calling God “Father” 156 times.  Because of our sins, we can’t have a relationship with God, but only because of God’s grace, we can call God, “Father.”  Even Peter, Jesus’ top disciple, disowned Jesus three times, but Jesus fully forgave him and restored him with a home-cooked breakfast.  According to Tim Keller’s book, “The Prodigal God”, the word “prodigal” is defined as “recklessly extravagant; having spent everything.” This well describes our God who recklessly spent everything in order to save us, in spite of our deplorable sins.  Charles Spurgeon expressed this in his sermon on this text, entitled “Prodigal Love for the Prodigal Son.” To God the Father, His greatest love and treasure is His one and only Son.  Yet God did not spare his Son in order to save us from hell (Ro 8:32) by condemning Jesus in our place (2 Cor 5:21). In this parable, the younger son’s problem was that he extravagantly lived for selfish pleasures that can never satisfy his soul, rather than enjoying the extravagant fulfilling love of the father.  This younger son could easily represent every single American and each of us, for we strongly desire our own pleasures rather than God Himself.  But despite our ugly selfishness, God loves us, just as the father loves his prodigal younger son.  We learn here that no matter how much we have sinned and how ugly we become, God is ready to forgive us and restore us when we come to him in repentance.

Third, the older brother thinks he is good, but he is also lost

In the second part of this parable, the older brother came in from working in the field, and heard the music and dancing.  Let’s read verses 25-32 together.  "Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.  And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.  And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, 'Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"  The older son refused to enter the celebration feast for his younger brother’s return, in spite of the father pleading for him to do so. Jesus leaves us in suspense about the end of the story.  The missing ending of the story alludes to the older son in this parable being the Pharisees whom Jesus was speaking to and all “good” sinners who are like them.  Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”  Jesus redefines our understanding of what sin is.  The older son did not think that he was a sinner compared to his bad younger brother.  But he was also a terrible sinner, only in a different way.  First, the older son refused the Father’s request to attend his feast.  Second, he jealously complained that he never got even a young goat to celebrate with his friends.  Third, he directly insulted his father.  In the NIV translation, he said, “Look [!], all these years I’ve been slaving for you…”  Ultimately the older son had no love or mercy in his heart, because he had no God in his heart, but only the outward appearance of goodness and godliness.  By the word “slaving,” we see that his root problem was that he believed he was good because by his own estimation that he never disobeyed the father.  But his obedience was joyless, angry, and legalistic.

Jesus shows us in this parable that both sons were lost sinners.  Both sons valued the father’s blessing more than the father himself.  The younger son demanded his share of the inheritance and left home.  The older son followed the rules at home so that he could get what he wanted from the father, such as a goat.  Both sons sought happiness through something other than the Father’s love.  The younger son sought happiness through self-discovery by doing whatever he wanted.  The older son sought happiness through moral conformity by following the system.  Like these two sons, we want what God can give us more than we want God himself.  We want human blessings: wealth, health, a good life, a gentle spouse, cute children, recognition, and human greatness more than enjoying God himself, just like the older son in the parable who longed and craved for his father’s goat.  The two sons are extreme examples of radicalism and conservatism.  Many of us, however, oscillate between the two or are a hybrid of the two.  Some have the younger brother’s immoral craving and also the older brother’s self-righteousness.  Some are rebellious for a season of life, who then become conservative without really knowing repentance or a life-changing relationship with God, such as many of the 1960’s “hippies” who became the 1980’s “yuppies.”  Despite the variations, both attitudes are wrong, and we’re still lost.  Though the older son was “good” by conventional standards, he was lost and alienated from the Father.  When the older son said, “I never disobeyed your command,” he revealed his blindness to his own lost condition.  Whereas the younger son rebelled against the father by breaking his commands, the older son rebelled against the father by keeping his commands.  Sin is not just breaking the rules.  It is breaking one’s relationship with God by putting himself in God’s place of authority and value.  In spite of the fact that both sons were equally lost, both were also equally loved by the father.  Whereas the younger sons’ sins were obvious, and he could see his need for repentance, the older son was blind to his sins because of self-righteousness. The older brother’s condition is characterized by anger and superiority, slavishness and emptiness, fear-based guilt, and lack of assurance.  But because the older brother is blind to his condition, he is in a more spiritually desperate condition, for he does not realize how much he needs the father’s restoration.

Fourth, the father’s feast is where utmost pleasure and moral integrity meet

Let’s read verse 32 together, “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"   Like this parable, the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin also end with a celebration.  In last week’s passage from Luke 14, we learned that God’s salvation is like an eternal banquet.  It is not just an abstract concept, but a real experience of joyful delight that is rooted in a right relationship with God, which we need more than anything in the world.  In today’s parable of the lost son, Jesus teaches that the lifestyles of the older and younger sons are both dead-ends, and that the only way find a truly happy life is through knowing God and receiving his salvation.  Psalm 85:10-13  (The Message Translation) says, “Love and Truth meet in the street, Right Living and Whole Living embrace and kiss!.”  The younger son wanted pleasure but was ruined by it.  The older son tried to obtain blessing through moral obligation, but had no real joy.  But through life in Christ, represented by the celebratory feast, morality and joy--the ethical and the sensual can come together perfectly.  Knowing Jesus personally and intimately is the only way that brings pleasure and ethics together.  When we live in Jesus’ saving grace, we can experience both the righteous life and also the joyful life.

Today, we learned three parables that reveal different aspects of lost sinners.  Like the lost sheep, we are prone to get lost from God, but God cares for us individually.  Like the lost coin, we learn that we are so valuable to God that he searches to find us.  From the parable of the lost son, we learned that our God is the prodigal God. The word ‘prodigal’ means extravagant, spending to the point of poverty.  We generally think of the prodigal as the younger son who squandered his life away in reckless wild living.  But it is our God who is recklessly extravagant and who recklessly spent everything, even sacrificing his only Son Jesus in order to save us.  We also learn that God loves not only the “bad” lost people like the younger son, but also the “good” lost people like the older son.  Only Jesus can save us from our obvious badness, and especially from our blind deception and presumption of our own goodness.  When we taste the mercy of God through a personal relationship with Jesus, we can experience the best life of utmost pleasure and moral integrity.